American Express card fees

[talder88]

Hi,

Is there away to disable AMEX as a card brand? Whilst I understand that this may be part of the "core" payment system. Not everyone/business may wish to offer this due to the increased fees, yet they have no option to disable this card being accepted.

So if someone wanted to use this they could, despite having it on a website you do not accept them, people can still use that card as your core system accepts it therefore the business is then charged a higher fee for it when they do not want to accept it.

Many thanks

The title of this thread has been edited from the original to make it more accessible to other sellers with similar queries: AMEX

[#2]

Hey @talder88 - I think there might be a bit of a misunderstanding here! 

See below about Squares fees - note that there are no additional charges for Amex. 

Square’s Payment Processing Fees

With the Square Point of Sale app, you’ll pay the following per-transaction fees:

• 1.75% for each contactless, chip and PIN or swiped card-present transaction.

• 2.5% for payments manually keyed-in to the Square Point of Sale app, recurring payments facilitated via Online Checkout links, Square Invoices and Virtual Terminal.

• 1.4% + 25p for UK cards and 2.5% + 25p for non-UK cards for our online payment products, including Square eCommerce API, Square Online, Online Checkout, Subscription Payments and purchases of Digital Gift Cards.

There are no minimum monthly transaction requirements, and fees are only charged when card payments are processed.

The transaction rates remain the same no matter what type of card is charged—Visa, Mastercard and American Express are all charged at the same rate.

Discover a more detailed breakdown of Square's fees and pricing.

[Sam_400º · Accepted solution]

Hey @talder88 - I think there might be a bit of a misunderstanding here! 

See below about Squares fees - note that there are no additional charges for Amex. 

Square’s Payment Processing Fees

With the Square Point of Sale app, you’ll pay the following per-transaction fees:

• 1.75% for each contactless, chip and PIN or swiped card-present transaction.

• 2.5% for payments manually keyed-in to the Square Point of Sale app, recurring payments facilitated via Online Checkout links, Square Invoices and Virtual Terminal.

• 1.4% + 25p for UK cards and 2.5% + 25p for non-UK cards for our online payment products, including Square eCommerce API, Square Online, Online Checkout, Subscription Payments and purchases of Digital Gift Cards.

There are no minimum monthly transaction requirements, and fees are only charged when card payments are processed.

The transaction rates remain the same no matter what type of card is charged—Visa, Mastercard and American Express are all charged at the same rate.

Discover a more detailed breakdown of Square's fees and pricing.

[talder88]

Hello @Sam_400º 

Thanks for coming back to me, whilst I understand that, but would an AMEX not be classed as a non-UK card, therefore being a higher charge?

Sorry, I am trying to find out for one of my clients as it used to be that AMEX was more expensive in transaction fees, which is generally why a lot of people want to avoid that as a card option which is why I was asking if there was a way to disable it.

Many thanks

[Sam_400º]

Hey @talder88 - Amex issued in the UK will be just like any other UK card. 

If it is issued in another county then it’ll be charged at non uk the same way that a visa or Mastercard issued in another county would. 

Most providers do charge more for AMEX, Square is one of the ones that doesn’t. 

[Lou8]

Hi @talder88, thanks for your post!

I just wanted to jump in to confirm what @Sam_400º posted above. 

Square processes all cards with the same standard rate, whether it's a Visa, Mastercard or an American Express. There are no hidden fees and all card fees are included in Square’s fees. You will not incur any charges from the card networks.

Feel free to read more about our fees and the accepted card on our Support Centre articles. 

[talder88]

@Lou8thank you, can I just confirm that you're an employee of Square?

It's just I'm checking this on behalf of my client who I have created a website for and just want a reference point for them that this information has come from an official at Square.

@Sam_400º thank you again for your assistance I will relay this back to my client.

Many thanks

[Sam_400º]

Hey @talder88 - @Lou8 is a Square employee (they all have the little square logo on their Avatar - they are the only ones to have this).

[talder88]

@Sam_400º I had worked that out, I just wanted to double check.

Many thanks

[Lou8]

Let me know if you need anything else or have further questions @talder88.

[talder88]

@Lou8 I would just say just from past knowledge with American Express fees, maybe it may be good to just draw attention to it to make it clearer so people know it is all the same fee.

I will feed this back to my client to let them know that an AMEX issued in the UK is the same as any other UK card.

As they're based in London, there could be the potential that they have clients that do not have UK issued AMEX cards, is there anyway that it could be disabled to avoid this scenario?

[Sam_400º]

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@talder88 wrote:

@Lou8 I would just say just from past knowledge with American Express fees, maybe it may be good to just draw attention to it to make it clearer so people know it is all the same fee.

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The text in the first reply is copied directly from Squares fee pages - it's all there 👍🏻. I did however make the relevant section bold. 

I mean, this is just one seller to another here - but I think it would be better to educate your client about the cost of doing business? If they have a customer with a non UK issued card, this is likely to be the same for all the cards in their wallet - so it's a case of blocking them from the sale. 

If they really want to block customers from being able to use their site they are able to set this up in the risk manager section by creating a new rule. 

 

[Lou8]

Thanks for suggesting Risk Manager @Sam_400º. Although it's a tool meant to help manage potential fraud from online payments, your client could set up Conditions if they don't want to accept non-UK cards @talder88. You can forward them our Support Centre article Risk Manager FAQ if they'd like to know more.

There is no way for us to disable a particular card type during the checkout process. But as mentioned previously, the processing fees for online payments for non-UK cards are the same regardless of the brand (2.5% + 25p). 

You can find more details about pricing and how Square fees work on our website squareup.com/pricing. We also have a couple of Support Centre articles dedicated to this topic.